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dchapp2001

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Everything posted by dchapp2001

  1. Folks, In 1997 I bought my 1993 Lexus SC300. It had around 95,000 miles on it and I didn't expect it to run forever. But it seems it almost did. I put around 175,000 miles on the car myself. I did replace the front and rear engine seals. But that about it, and it never did smoke are use oil. Man, I love that car......page 2. One day the car cranked but did not fire. After much research I thought I discovered the problem and set out to fix it myself. I am somewhat mechanical inclined, but certainly not a professional. I changed out a switch on the fuel system (forgot the actual part name) and used a feeler guage to set everything back to proper on the "fuel system". Bingo...it fired and I drove it around 3 or 4 miles, went home, parked, and it has not fired since. I rechecked all the settings several times, but could never get it to fire again, and found the plug were all carbon'd up. So, I started looking for other issues and found that it was not getting fuel from the fuel rail to the plugs. So, thinking something was clogged up, I began taking the fuel rail off to get to the problem. Unfortunately, that is where the repair story ends. I am a software consultant and travel 100%. Having a family, and a traveling job takes all my time. The car is great, and I love it, but I just don't have time to tinker. So, here's my question.....how much could I expect to receive for the car if I sold it "as is"? Body is great. Interior not so great. And engine...well you know that situation by now. It's a classic and I toyed with the thought of buying a new engine, turbos, replacing the auto transmission with a manual transmission, and replacing the interior. If I was wealthy I would probably do that, but you can add those dollars up and see that I would be talking about serious money to do it right. So, I digress....but I am really going to miss that car. When it quit running I went out and bought a boxter. That boxter holds the road like no other. But that SC300 would run circles around it. Geez, I feel like I'm going through a divorce. :( Thoughts? I'll post pictures as a follow up. Dan
  2. Skizz, I bought a 93 SC300 in 1997 for about $16k when it had 90K on it. Initially I put about $2k in maintaining the car because the doctor who own it took poor care of the vehicle and then traded it for a Mercedes. Today I have 265k on the car and if I had not made a stupid mistake about a week ago (Long Story TLC screwup) I would still be running strong. I still plan to exceed 325k. I just love the car and it screams! If I do keep it and rebuild the engine or buy an engine, I want to put a single turbo and replace the AT with the MT. That would really boost an already great performance. I own a boxter also. I have more fun driving the SC. Good luck with your vehicle. If I had to guess (and there are so many variaboles) I would say that you could expect to get 300k out of the car if you take excellent care of it. My wife bought my car on site after our Lexus dealer gave it an A+ on the 150 point check. Then when I openned the oil cap a couple of weeks later I had to take a screw driver to remove the mud and sand. I thought I would die! So the Lexus dealer did get the front and rear seal replacement work (the $2k mentioned above). Here is the great part. The valve covers started leaking also, so I called the same service department that did the 150 point inspection, and replaced the front and rear seals. I asked my personal service manager what she thought I should do (this was all in a month). Her reply was, "Sir I think you need a new engine". She was serious and very lucky I was not standing next to her. After cooling off I called management and they were very regretful of the situation, but made no amends. My extended family has since bought 4 or 5 brand new Lexi's, but I made sure none was from them ;) Bottom line you are in probably in good shape if you take excellent care of your car. If you do not personally work on your own cars and do not have an OBDII reader you can plan on the "TD" package. Every Lexus comes with a secret "TD" code :D behind the model #. It stands for "Thousand Dollars". I do not care if you take it in for wiper blades....your bill in the end will be at least $1000. I'll never go back with my used vehicles. Same with my Porche. Just changed the MAF. Part cost $200 and 5 minutes to install. Dealer qouted over $1000. Good Luck
  3. I'm sure this will not help you much, but just an interesting comparison. I have a reader for cars newer than 1996 and my 1997 Porche Boxter just had an 18xx code come up. I read up online and found that it is usually the MAF sensor. They said in the Porche forum that have heard of no one who could clean it and get it to work. But I tried anyway, to no avail. So, I bought a new one online for $180 and installed in 5 minutes. Problem solved. Porche dealer charge would have been $500 for part and I'm sure total of $1000 before I got out of there. But here is why your comment really interests me. I have a 1993 SC300 that has about 265k on it. It was running great, but sprung a transmission leak in radiator return. So, I bought a new radiator. While I was at it I figured I would just do some minor things. I changed plugs, wires, rotor, cap, a few heater hoses, and most vacum hoses. Not a lot of effort, but I made one very crucial mistake. I had to remove the throttle body to get to a couple of the plugs. Rather than unwiring the throttle idle sensor, I took it off. Big mistake. I've tried everything, including a spec tune on the throttle body. It still spits and sputters, but sometimes runs. Now that you bring up the MAF and since I had that problem with the Porche....the problem seems very similar in action. I may need to take a look at that or break down and get a reader that handles vehicles older than a 96 ;) I know this does not help much, but on the Porche site they said they know of no one who could clean the MAF and I concur with that statement as far as the porche goes.
  4. :( In three days I have two lexus's down with coolant leaks. One was radiator. I fixed that. I have an LX450 that is leaking fluid as fast as I can put it in. The leak is on the driver side at back of engine above starter and under manifold. Looks like a hose. but I cannot hardly see the cause much less get my hands on it due to the starter and other objects. I do not have a cooling system diagram. Does anyone have any idea what the source of the leak might be and how best to attack the fix?
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